Which would you rather have?

I think consumer can sell it themselves or via a discount brokerage service. They do not have to offer anything to the buyer’s broker via some services. In my mind, consumer can already save if they like.

They can even list on Streeteasy and get direct buyer. My neighbors sold their previous apartment that way.

I have a salesperson's license and do not need the services of a buyer broker when shopping for myself. I let listing agents know I am licensed when I contact them or visit an open house. If I was not licensed, I feel sure that most listing agents would try to collect a full commission which seems quite unfair to consumers.

I think each firm has their own rules about whether to work with a buyer who wants to split the commission or credit half the commission to the sales price. Also, a listing agent from Elliman said they will only work with buyer broker firms who are REBNY members.

It seems that certain rules of broker cooperation should be made clearer, in the interest of consumer protection if nothing else.

Outlaw exclusives? Perhaps not but certainly we should outlaw dual agency which is an embarrassment.

Ximon, The buyer has a choice to work with fsbo listings only. No one is forcing them. The same way, a seller knows that the commission will only be split with a buyer represented by a broker. They are free to negotiate a lower commission with their broker if the buyer is unrepresented. I do not see any need for more laws.

Of course, Streeteasy fees will kill you for fsbo if your listing is on there for 6 months.

I don't mean to be overly commercial here, but our listing model essentially provides this type of service. I think that Innman ran an article that dealt with this, basically real estate teams breaking off from their brokerage houses. You then have more flexibility with the commission as we have. So to sort of just lay it all out there we charge 3.75% (2.5% to buy-side agent) and on a direct we charge 2.5%. For this we provide a full service experience, and it's been quite successful to date. Our first three listings sold after just two weeks on Market, in one case after the first open house we had multiple bids. We are obviously able to do this because a percentage of the commission is not going to the "house".

I personally think this is a very interesting conversation and many of the Brokers that I've talked to at large firms Now understand our model and quite frankly think it's quite smart. Are there some haters? Sure. You just have to look at Financial Services, travel and online shopping as examples of technology making process more efficient and less expensive. One of the reasons I think we've been so successful is because you're getting a very high level of personalized service. I'm not sure if this model scales too large companies, perhaps in the future the real estate brokerage business will look quite different than it does today.

My feeling is if you're very good at what you do you will be successful. And our particular model and style may not be for everyone. But if you shop for your diamonds at Blue Nile rather than Tiffany's you may be our customer; same quality diamonds, different box.

So at the end of the day we get the deals done for buyers, sellers, agents and developers in a more cost-conscious way and it doesn't cost them a penny. And both our buyers and sellers feel very good about the transaction and the fact that they've saved themselves some money. We simply agree to take less. So when a broker tells me "oh if the seller finds out your rebating money they're going to be upset", I chuckle. I think to myself why on Earth would they be upset? I've just helped sell their property and it didn't cost them a penny more. They feel better that you're giving a portion of your commission to a big firm that you work for? We live in an age of information you don't need big boxes to sell real estate. But to each his own.

Keith Burkhardt

" Also, a listing agent from Elliman said they will only work with buyer broker firms who are REBNY members."
That kind of sounds like Restraint of trade to me, just like ""oh if the seller finds out your rebating money they're going to be upset" seems to me to be heading down the slippery slope towards that famous conversation of "we have to stick together and hold the line firm on 6% commissions" which got a bunch of brokers in hot water.